Recount of votes commences

After a two-hour delay, the recount of all votes cast on March 2, 2020, commenced at the Arthur Chung Conference Center Wednesday.

The recount started with Districts One and Three.

A number of issues hampered the start to the recount which was slated for 8:00h, including locating the key to one of the containers with the ballot boxes.

Presidential Candidate for The Citizenship Initiative (TCI) Rondha Lam in a Facebook post noted that there was a delay in the opening of the container with ballot boxes for Region Four since the keys could not be found.

The containers are locked by GECOM and political parties to secure the integrity of the ballot boxes. It is unclear whose key was missing.

AFC member David Patterson told the media that the container with the ballot boxes for Region Three was opened and the offloading has begun.

There are ten recount stations set up for recounts of votes cast in Regions 1, 2, 3, and 4 with two workstations for District 1, two workstations for District 2, three workstations for District 3 and three workstations for District 4.

The day started with political party agents being briefed by the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield.

They were then taken to the recount stations.

According to Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward, the morning briefing mostly covered house-keeping matters as the parties previously met with GECOM on Saturday last.

Following the meeting, they were taken to the ten recount stations where the ballots will be counted.

The process will run for 11 hours daily for approximately 25 days.

The media is not allowed inside the compound at the ACCC but was instead placed under two tents at the entrance of the venue.

The recount is being streamed live on GECOM’s Facebook and Youtube pages.